November 04, 2006
Meatheads Prefer Blondes
First aired: November 17, 1975
Recently aired: September 11, 2006
Written by: Lou Derman and Milt Josefsberg
Directed by: Paul Bogart
When All in the Family debuted in 1971, it was topical, edgy, and ground-breaking (I used to think it was totally cool that they said "hell" and "damn" on this show). By 1975, it seems to have had surrendered to sitcom entropy and settled in to more standard plotlines. Here, a pregnant Gloria is jealous of the woman Mike is tutoring. And she has good reason to be - he's tutoring the lovely Linda Galloway (Bernadette Peters and her pouty lips).
I remember once reading that Rob Reiner used to hang around the set of The Dick Van Dyke show while his dad, Carl Reiner, executive produced the show. In this episode, it seems that Reiner learned how to act like a total buffoon around pretty women from Van Dyke. The giggling, the stammering - they're all here. The difference here is that Linda actually responds to it:
"you're being cute and charming, like you're coming on to me. And if you're trying to turn me on, I just want you to know it's okay." She then sits on his lap and kisses him with her pouty lips (Note: as a guy who has acted like a total buffoon around women many times, I can assure you that this never happens). This is followed by a Happy Days studio audience-like "wo-o-o-o-o-o!"
"Gloria Suspects Mike" seems to be less about marital fidelity than an opportunity for Reiner and Carroll O'Connor to do shtick. Archie suspects Mike of cheating on Gloria, so he gets Mike drunk in hopes that Mike will confess his sins ("in vine-o ve-REET-us"). Usually a drunk scene involves someone saying what he or she would not say when sober, thus letting us get to know the character a little better. Here it's simply used for exposition: a drunk Mike tells Archie that he did not respond to Linda's advances. In vino deus ex machina.
Stuff I noticed:
Edith flubs a line and they keep it in. When Archie gets locked in the basement and bangs on the door, she says "oh, that's Glor - Archie!"
The only political joke is one about Betty Ford's alcoholism.
Opening Title Sequence Watch: Archie and Edith singing "Those Were the Days" at the piano is classic TV iconography. Written by broadway legend Charles Strouse ("Bye Bye Birdie," "Annie"), the song is about how great everything was a few decades ago. Thus, there are references to Glenn Miller and the La Salle automobile. But if I ever met Strouse, I would ask him what's the deal with the line "Mister we could use a man like Herbert Hoover again." Hoover was the one every one blamed for the Great Depression. Hell, even Strouse's lyricist for "Annie," Martin Charnin, wrote a whole song about Americans' loathing of Hoover ("We'd Like to Thank You"). Was he going for irony?
"Boy, the way Glen Miller played. Songs that made the Hit Parade. Guys like us, we had it made. Those were the days! Didn't need no welfare state. Everybody pulled his weight Gee, our old LaSalle (a car) ran great. Those were the days! And you knew where you were then! Girls were girls and men were men. Mister, we could use a man like Herbert Hoover again. People seemed to be content. Fifty dollars paid the rent. Freaks were in a circus tent. Those were the days! Take a little Sunday spin, go to watch the Dodgers win. Have yourself a dandy day that cost you under a fin (five dollar bill). Hair was short and skirts were long. Kate Smith really sold a song. I don't know just what went wrong! Those Were the Days!"
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